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The Herberts
Robert “''Bob''” Herbert (February 7th, 1942) was an accountant from Brentford, England, specializing in musicians’ finances, who drifted into management in 1986 when he took a liking to Matt and Luke Goss, twin friends of his son Chris when they were pupils together at Collingwood School in Camberley, Surrey. Luke Goss played the drums and Matt was the singer. Their band, with the bassist Craig Logan, was called Gloss. Bob Herbert suggested they changed the name to Bros. Realising the blond looks of Matt and Luke could be exploited to market a group that could be the Eighties' answer to the Bay City Rollers, Herbert offered Gloss advice and provided rehearsal space for them in his summer house. But it wasn't long before he was investing a lot more than time and friendly encouragement in Bros. He introduced them to songwriters, financed their early demo tapes and plotted their route to success – for a while. Bob Herbert: I paid for studio sessions to get their songs recorded. I did a video, styled them, paid for everything. It must have come to £40,000 to £50,000. What Bob Herbert didn’t do, however, was to sign the boys (who were both under 18) or their parents to a formal contract. So, when, as is the nature of things in the pop world, they were snapped up by a more experienced manager – Tom Watkins of Pet Shop Boys fame – who quickly proceeded to steer them to the top of the charts, Herbert found himself in a peculiarly vulnerable situation. According to Erwin Keiles, a guitarist and songwriter who was a close associate of the Herberts at that time and for many years afterwards, Bob Herbert actually ‘did OK” out of the Bros affair. Erwin Keiles: His daughter, Nicola, was going out with one of the brothers, and the group's relationship with him continued after Tom Watkins became their manager. So they took care of him. So you would think that Bob would have taken great care to avoid getting himself into a similar position again. But the Bros venture was not the last occasion on which he was to find himself unable to capitalize on his investment in a pop group. Even worse, compared to the jackpot he was going to miss out on next time. The years passed and Bob was joined in his management activities by his son. Chris Herbert (born March, 1971 in Hillingdon, Middlesex, England) grew up in music industry orientated environment that had a large influence on his eventual career direction. At the age of twenty-one Herbert approached his father for advice and assistance in setting up his own talent management company. Together they worked on a succession of humdrum pop acts including the aptly named Optimistic and the unconvincing Worlds Apart. and has helped overseen the careers of Five, Stephen Gately and Hear'Say, B*Witched, The Honeyz, Ben's Brother. But the first project the pair worked on was the creation of an all-girl pop group to cater to what he had identified as a potentially massive untapped market.